Waitrose - one year on

We started supplying Waitrose one year ago today and, phew, have we learned a lot.

We started in 10 stores (nine nearest the farm and one in London) and we delivered directly to each store twice a week. The cost to produce small batches and to deliver individually was far more than we made from the contract but we knew it was worth the investment. We simply had to try supplying Waitrose and they had given us no reason not to trust them.

In May, our gamble took the next step to paying off when our contract was more than tripled to 34 stores. Now we're all over the country and though we're still not quite feeling the benefits of economies of scale, we're getting there. We've made major changes to logistics and production in the last three months particularly to mean that we're lined up ready to start making money once the volumes increase. We've learned that it's all about getting your soldiers lined up and trying to streamline everything as much as you possibly can and then... it's time to grow.

Hopefully on 26 September 2012, I'll be writing about how we're a national food brand. Fingers crossed.

Would you like to read the interview I did for The Telegraph business section about my top tips for supplying a multiple? Click here if you'd like to.